dak125

This started happening about 3 weeks ago. I haven't gotten it looked at yet due to the fact that it's sporadic at best.

What happens is the car will be running fine, then all of a sudden it starts idling poorly and start shaking. While moving and giving it gas it starts "shaking", the exhaust sounds horrible. It really sound as though it's misfiring.

I originally was thinking fuel injectors due to the fact some of these symptoms were occurring when 2 of my injectors were bad. The only difference between then and now is that this doesn't happen continually. When the injectors were bad it felt as though it were running on 4 cylinders and shook very badly all the time. The similarities are mainly when driving.

I'm trying to get a general idea of what the problem might be before I take it out to the shop. What are the symptoms of a bad optispark? Could it be injectors even though this doesn't happen all the time? Any ideas as to what the problem would be would be a huge help. Also a ball park figure for fixing an optispark would be appreciated as well. Thanks in advance as usual-Jon

kingman109

mines doing same and flashing check engine - however when i scan im getting a bad O2 sensor on right bay- which im being told could be telling it to use to much gas and therefore those cylinders will misfire... im changing tommorow so will let u know-

dak125

Awesome, thank you. Looking forward to an update.

I'm not getting a SES though.

Any other possibilities?

EDIT #2: It might be my imagination but I just went out to the garage and I could smell a pretty strong gas odor. I noticed it earlier but only after the car was running. Doesn't smell like usual either....

kingman109

as well im running extremely rich especially when i run WOT- newest theory is EGR valve could not be functioning hence my origninal EGR code which i cleared- i was also told to look into vacum leaks-

like i said tommroow i have off and my garage is empty so im tearing car down and getting to bottom of this- will let u know

dak125

Much appreciated, thanks.

dak125

Just an update:

I payed close attention to the way the car drove this morning and it deffinetly only starts running like crap when the car is warmed up. When I first start it up in the morning and head out to work it runs great. About 1.5 miles into the drive it starts running horribly.

Fuel injectors seem to be out of the question. Last time when they were bad it ran horribly all the time, not only when the car warmed up.

Anyone have any thoughts?

lt1powerd

my car is doing the exact same thing... it did something like it when the o2 sensors were going bad. After replacing those it ran fine for a while, but now its acting up again. I'm thinking opti

Gio93z

HERE'S MY INPUT - i dont kno alot about engines and all that tech stuff but i do kno this - my opti on my 93 has gone bad 3 times so i kno the symptoms for a bad opti - everytime my opti has gone bad....

- the car runs fine when it is cold
- when it heats up a bit anywhere from 1800 to 2300 RPM the car bogged and seemed like it was going to stall
- when the opti got real bad the car actually stalled on me a few times
- so when you step on the gas teh car loses all its power although if you keep giving it gas you can step thru this hesitation so the opti is ok at a high RPM - it is teh lower range that you see the problem

- have you had any coolant or oil leaks lately b/c you kno that if the opti gets wet then you can get some issues even if you have a vented opti

anyways who knows - thats my input from experience

Giovanni

Fux0redImages

check your plugs, then change the o2 sensors. when you first start the car it is running in open loop, which means it dumps fuel according to fuel charts. after it gets warm it goes into closed loop which dumps fuel according to the o2 sensors. if you've got an o2 on the frizz it can go to extremely lean to extremely rich, causing you to have a rough idle, and run like crap.

dak125

Wow, this is from awhile ago.

Basically what happened was, one of the wires got fuel on it. That was it. The mechanic cut it down I believe and it's been running wonderfully ever since.